Way to Go Out with a Bang: Jamie Moyer Released

It happened a lot sooner than I expected when the season started, but the Colorado Rockies released 49-year-old Jamie Moyer today. I had hoped that he might be able to provide more quality innings for the Rockies, but in recent starts his effectiveness had been poor. The Rockies had no choice but to release Moyer to free up a spot in the rotation for another one of their young starters.

Moyer finished his run with the Rockies 2-5 with a 5.70 ERA over 10 starts. When the 2012 season started, Moyer was actually one of the Rockies‘ most consistent pitchers. Despite losing his first two games, I felt that Moyer pitched well enough to secure a victory both times. He was plagued by poor fielding (the Rockies committed five errors in these two games) and even poorer hitting (only five runs produced).

However, as the season wore on, Moyer started to become less effective. Manager Jim Tracy noted that his variety of pitches were starting to look very similar to each other. For a 49-year-old who started the season throwing a fastball at 82 mph, dropping velocity as the season went on made him less and less effective. Opponents batted .328 against him in his 10 starts, and Moyer rarely made it past the fifth inning because opposing batters were figuring him out after seeing him once. It would be one thing if Moyer pitched well into the sixth or seventh and was pulled because he simply couldn’t handle a high pitch count. What was actually happening was Moyer was allowing so many runs by the fifth (usually) that Tracy had no choice but to pull him.

I was hoping that Moyer would be able to provide more quality starts for the Rockies, but he did as well as he could at this stage in his career. The Rockies are trying to develop their young staff while they await the return of Jorge De La Rosa from Tommy John surgery and Jhoulys Chacin from a shoulder injury. Having a pitcher who routinely needed to be replaced after five innings put a great deal of stress on the bullpen and the starters around him in the rotation to go longer to accommodate Moyer’s short games.

Moyer might possibly make the roster of another major league club that has a need for a fifth starter, but potential suitors should look hard at Moyer’s abilities (or inabilities) at this point. It’s also quite possible that Moyer’s lengthy career could finally be at an end. Breaking into the league in 1986, Moyer has accumulated 269 victories over his 25-year career.